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You can now cruise the backwaters of Kerala from the comforts of the airport in Delhi. Kerala Tourism has rolled out a unique initiative at airports titled ‘The Great Backwater Experience’, which allows you to remotely experience Kerala while waiting to catch your flight, courtesy virtual reality. The initiative, part of the Kerala Tourism’s ‘Out of Home’ marketing campaign to promote brand Kerala, is targeted at high net worth individuals in the domestic market and has been rolled out in the departure terminal at the airport in New Delhi.
“The zone is up and functional at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi and visitors can get an immersive experience of sitting inside a ‘kettuvellam’, the traditional Kerala houseboat, floating on tranquil backwaters in a place situated over 2,000 km away. This has been made possible through the innovative use of virtual reality,” said Mr. U.V. Jose, Director, Kerala Tourism.
Kerala’s famous backwaters are brought to life for visitors through a two-minute film – specially shot using 360 degree technology utilising six cameras simultaneously – which can be viewed after they don an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The zone is fitted with a life-size houseboat installation into which the visitor enters and dons the headset. The film recreates the beauty of the rippling waters of a lagoon watching the distant sunset, the birds, the fishes, and other flora and fauna as they roll along.
The zone in Terminal 3 of the airport in Delhi is located before the security area in the departures section. “Delhi is the first airport where we have set up the ‘experience site’. Preparations are on to create similar zones at the Bengaluru and Mumbai airports too,” said Mr. Jose.
After their virtual reality experience, those visiting the stall can tweet with a special hashtag, #Greatbackwaters, for an opportunity to get a picturesque postcard from a dispensing device installed there. The dispensing activity is controlled by tweets from users. The dispenser will capture tweets with the specified hashtag and then randomly reward a tweet with a postcard.
“Under this ‘Tweet of Postcards from Kerala’ activity, a postcard will be dispensed once every 15 minutes or so. The postcard can be mailed to near and dear ones from the zone itself,” said Mr. Jose.
